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Where applicable, the following public cases may include Commission decisions, statements of charges, answers to statements of charges, exhibits, and/or supreme court decisions. These documents are available for download as Portable Document Format (PDF) files.*

In re the Honorable Marvin Buchanan

Judge Buchanan served in the county district court and in the municipal court, but did not seek reelection in 1982, and subsequently retired from both offices. While in office, the judge instructed his staff not to cooperate with one attorney whom he referred to as “a little, rich Jew kid”. The judge also disrupted the courtroom proceedings of a pro tempore judge by arguing with and pushing an attorney appearing before the pro tempore judge. He also was occasionally loud and abusive towards members of his staff.
Apart from his public displays of temper, he generally acted in an undignified manner when dealing with women employees, freely commented about the size of a court employee’s breasts, on one occasion hugged and kissed a clerk in an offensive, embarrassing manner and asked personal, irrelevant questions of female job applicants. He also fired two female employees who testified against him before the commission.
The commission recommended that he be publicly censured.

Supreme Court Decision (276 KB) 100 Wn.2d 396, 669 P.2d 1248, filed 10/6/1983.

Commission Decision (314 KB) filed 10/28/1982.

 

 

 

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